Tuesday, July 24, 2012

The
power of media is undisputed. It has far reaching effects on our
psyche and influences our thoughts and perceptions in both conscious
and subconscious ways. The problem is that media is not only all
around us but its stance is quite often reinforced by us. Although
media is an overarching term and there are better and worse fountains
of knowledge to quench one's thirst with (BBC vs Fox respectively)
the fact is that media, regardless of its reliability, rides a common
current.

Apart
from a sensationalist perspective that has the heavy tendency to
overemphasize the bad over the good hence giving an extremely bleak
view of humanity, media is also very topical in nature. For example,
over the past decade or so and with increasing vehemence, terrorism
has become the major focal point. In other words, the bearded
fundamentalist Islamic fellow has been more often than not in the
news and has become a staple footage of most media, reliable or not.

There
have been other faces in the past. They are usually portrayed as
dangerous, a threat to freedom and democracy. In the heyday of media,
the face that appeared in the newspaper headlines was the painted and
feathered native Indian. Their so-called savagery and bellicose
attitude was contrasted with the civilized and peaceful lifestyle of
the settlers. The fight of the settlers was naturally one of
territory but in the minds of most people of the era (and even
today!) it was a moral matter, namely a fight between the
goodhearted religious folk, of earnest cowboys and cavalry against
the so-called cruel and blood-thirsty Indian.

Then
the media shifted its attention -- that is once the threat had been
neutralized
-- and the focus became the black man. The African American was
subjected (and again in many ways still is) to a case of negative
stereotyping. Both poverty and crime were blamed on them, mainly due
to a disproportionate attention on colored criminals along with some
Hollywood typecasting.

The
fear of the black man became a naturally occurring and reinforced
reaction regardless of the issue of racism. You may be an open-minded
person but you would still carry around the conditioned fear and
mistrust within you. Just imagine you, a white person, walking down a
dark and empty street and a colored man walks towards you. That
moment you would probably prefer running into a white person although
you swear that some of your best friends are black.

The
next common international enemy was a more complex matter because it
defied the perimeters of race. Although stereotypically they would be
Eastern Europeans with an obviously thick accent and terrible fashion
sense and haircuts, their ideas were seen as more contagious and
hence much more potent and dangerous for the common folk. In fact,
there was the paranoia that even your next door neighbor may be one
of them – a communist.

All
of this fear, the perceived threat to freedom and democracy in North
America and the rest of the Western world led to witch hunts à la
McCarthyism and its visual Hollywood representation of horror flicks
with zombies and infectious diseases. Yet strangely enough, the same
spirit with its witch-hunting and finger-pointing paranoia is still
felt and heard across the Western populace even today.

In
fact, the most recent enemy to freedom is the first-mentioned
long-bearded terrorist who more often than not dwells in cages and
wishes to destroy the American dream from a backward and barren
wilderness. In fact, he is trying to come up with the most creative
ways of instilling fear and panic in the West (more deliberately so
than the wicked conniving communist) and is not shy of putting on
explosive underwear to get his point across.

Which
is what, by the way? What is his point again? Media goes along and claims
that the matter is not political but moral and religious. The famed
and infamous “Axis of Evil” demonstrates that there is a moral
dimension to it all and brings back memories of the settlers' fight
against the unruly Indians.

The
West then, backed up and bolstered by mass media, is seen as the good and
righteous standing up courageously for our rights and freedoms all
around the world. I do not claim to diminish or take away the
wondrous accomplishments of the Western world, with its current world
power both economic and ideological, (still) being the United States.

Yet
I wonder if these freedoms can be perceived indeed as so fragile that
they are constantly under attack and that our spokesperson, the
media, always has to look behind its shoulder to see who the next
enemy may be. True confidence and affirmation in one's beliefs and
accomplishments should not be deterred or influenced by such threats
but should face them squarely and boldly in the eye.

In
fact, the consequence of all this fear mongering has led to an
evident decrease, not increase of freedoms and rights.
The paranoia seems to be pointing back to ourselves, while the
powerful media continues to fan our angst and insecurities.

2 comments:

You describe facets of America and then in the same breath you ascribe the same things to "The Western World", presumably including the UK and Europe. (Politically I know the UK is part of Europe, but that's another kind of conflation which I also reject.)

You mention the difference between the BBC and Fox, but the differences between America and UK are huge and significant to this kind of discussion.

The Second Amendment of the American constitution, for example, would be viewed with horror here in England.

But if you take out the references to the Western World, I'll accept what you say as fair comment.